Introduction
Feng Zikai was a pioneering figure in modern Chinese cartooning and a versatile artist, writer, translator, and musician. Blending Chinese literati painting with Western drawing, he used simple lines and empty space to reveal the poetry of everyday life. His 1924 work After the Guests Have Gone, a New Crescent Moon and Sky Like Water was so influential that the new art form became known as “Zikai’s Cartoons.”
Feng Zikai’s art also holds a special appeal for children. His simple lines, playful scenes, and gentle sense of humor preserve the freshness and curiosity of a child’s way of seeing the world. At the same time, his quiet compositions and generous use of empty space create a feeling of calm, inviting viewers to slow down and notice the warmth in ordinary life. To many children, Feng Zikai is not only a great artist, but also a kind, cat-loving grandfather whose pictures understand their small joys, imagination, and emotions.
Notable examples include:
- "Classical Poetry Vision" works such as After the Guests Have Gone, a New Crescent Moon and Sky Like Water and A Bosom Friend Afar Brings a Distant Land Near, which turn Tang and Song poetry into spare, modern images.
- "Children Vision" works such as Abao Has Two Legs, the Stool Has Four, When Papa Is Away, and Abao Bare-Chested, using faceless, minimal figures to depict a child's inner world.
- Destruction and Construction, a pioneering four-panel cartoon that introduced sequential storytelling to Chinese cartooning.
- "Social Vision" works such as Go to the Front, depicting wartime hardship with restrained, dignified composition.
- A Collection of Paintings for the Protection of Life, including Supporting Life and The Sound of Parting, expressing compassion for all living beings through pure ink and empty space.
Feng Zikai matters because he was among the first Chinese artists to bridge literati painting tradition and a modern visual language, drawing on Chen Shizeng's literati spirit, Li Shutong's technical training, and Takehisa Yumeji's lyrical style. He turned Chinese cartooning from satire into serious art, and turned everyday moments, wartime suffering, and compassion for living things into images of lasting emotional weight.
Ming Aretê’s lesson on Feng Zikai unfolds in two parts. Here in Part II, we explore Feng Zikai’s most prolific years, when his mature artistic voice gained wide recognition. Through poetry, childhood, society, and compassion, his art reveals an enduring vision of beauty and humanity.
Knowledge Builder
Content
This part covers Feng Zikai's most productive years, ages twenty-eight to forty-five, when he built four creative systems: the Children Vision, the Classical Poetry Vision, the Social Vision, and the Compassion Vision. Through works such as Abao Has Two Legs, the Stool Has Four, A Bosom Friend Afar Brings a Distant Land Near, Destruction and Construction, Go to the Front, and Supporting Life, you will see how childhood, poetry, wartime hardship, and compassion for living beings shaped his mature style.
1.1: Feng Zikai: Part 3
1.2: Quiz
This part covers Feng Zikai's final decades in Shanghai, where he founded the Shanghai Academy of Chinese Painting and turned toward simpler subjects from nature. Through works such as West Lake Belongs to the People and Return in Glory to Restore Our Land, you will see how his late style fulfilled the literati ideal that true mastery lies in purity of the original heart, not complexity of technique.
2.1: Feng Zikai: Part 4
2.2: Quiz
Instructor
Lucas Liu, MFA
Teaching Philosophy
He advocates student-centered teaching and designs targeted courses based on each student’s unique characteristics. Through interactive engagement, he stimulates students’ enthusiasm for creation and fosters innovative thinking. He encourages students to accumulate both successful and experimental experiences in practice, continuously expand their creative horizons, and find their own artistic paths.
Teaching Achievements
His students have been admitted to top domestic art institutions such as the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, as well as world-renowned international art schools.
In 2019, one of his students received admission offers from 12 art institutions (including OCAD University, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, and University of Alberta—three of Canada’s top art schools) and was awarded a $4,000 scholarship from Lakehead University.
Educational Background
- Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) University of Wisconsin- Madison, 2015 (Full Fellowship)
- Master of Arts (M.A.) - University of Wisconsin- Madison, 2014 (Full Fellowship)
- Bachelor’s of Arts - Tsinghua University Academy of Arts & Design, 2009